Mooring device



March 11, 1969 P. R. BROWN MOORING DEVICE Filed May 17, 1966 l/V VE/V 70R.

PA UL R BRO W/V STONE, UMMEI? 8 L/V/NGSTO/V United States Patent 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A mooring buoy having a mooring line secured thereto. An upright pole fixed to the upper portion of the buoy. A cleat releasably attached to the upright pole for selectively positioning the cleat along the length of the upright pole. Said cleat being adapted to releasably support a portion of the mooring line above the buoy.

This invention relates to an improved construction of a mooring device and more particularly to an improved construction for a mooring buoy or like device which holds a mooring line in an attitude for easy retrieval from a mooring buoy to be secured to a boat.

In the operation of boats, especially pleasure craft, one of the problems often encountered resides in the retrieval of a mooring line from a mooring buoy. Ordinarily, a powerboat is operating under minimum power, and it is difficult to guide properly a powerboat toward a buoy so that the boat is sufliciently close to a buoy to reach into the water with a boathook or another similar device and snag the mooring line. Furthermore, the mooring line is usually wet and hard to handle so that an inexperienced member of the crew has difliculty in holding onto the mooring line to secure the mooring line to the boat. In the case of sailboats, the same problem occurs because the sails are usually lowered when the boat approaches the buoy and the sail boat is drifting.

Furthermore, there is a problem of identifying a given buoy when a skipper is not in a familiar harbor. In many instances, a boat visiting a foreign harbor is assigned to a given buoy usually by number by a harbormaster, and the skipper has the problem of identifying the proper buoy. It is, therefore, one of the principal objects of the present invention to provide an improved mooring device wherein a mooring line is held above the buoy to make the line readily accessible for snagging with a boat hook or like device and to keep the mooring line out of the water.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved mooring device which has a clearly visible marking indicia so that a buoy may be readily identified.

It is a still further object of the present invention to provide an improved mooring device which may be readily mounted on existing buoys with a minimum of effort.

It is still another object of the herein disclosed invention to provide an improved mooring device which may be economically and simply manufactured.

Other objects and uses of the herein described invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art upon a perusal of the following specification in light of the accompanying drawing in which:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevational view of a mooring device embodying the herein disclosed invention shown with a mooring line attached to a cleat which constitutes a portion of the instant device;

FIGURE 2 is a side elevational view of the mooring device shown in FIGURE 1, but shown with the mooring line secured to a conventional boat;

FIGURE 3 is a perspective exploded view of elements ice of the mooring device shown in FIGURE 1 including a portion of the buoy, a support base, an upright and a cleat;

FIGURE 4 is a side elevational view of the mooring device shown in FIGURE 1, but with the mooring line removed and showing the cleat in two positions, one position being a phantom view and being in its upper position; and

FIGURE 5 is a perspective view of the cleat and showing a portion of the upright in phantom view.

Referring now to the drawing and especially to FIG- URE 1, a mooring device generally indicated by numeral 10, embodying the instant invention, is shown therein. The mooring device, in this instance, generally consists of a can buoy 12, a support base 14 mounted on the buoy, an upright 16 connected to the support base, a movable cleat 18 connected to the upright, a mooring line secured to the buoy and a pennant 22 secured to the upper portion of the upright. As was mentioned above, the can buoy 1 2 is a conventional can buoy, but it may be readily appreciated that the subject invention may be used with any other type of buoy or mooring.

In this instance, the support base 14 includes a generally flat plate 24 which has an aperture 26 in its central portion. The plate 24 has a mounting pedestal 28 formed integral therewith. The mounting pedestal has an internally threaded aperture 30 in its central portion. The plate 24 in this instance is secured to the buoy 12 by a plurality of conventional screws which are not shown herein. It may be appreciated that in this instance the support base 14 is cast of a suitable noncorrosive material, such as, brass, though any other suitable material, such as, bronze, also may be used. The support base is appropriately machined to form the necessary screw holes and threaded aperture though any suitable method of manufacture may be used. A mooring ring 32 is secured to the buoy, and the mooring line 20 has one end secured to the ring 32 thereby securing the line to the buoy.

The upright 16 is pole-like and has a threaded end 34 which mates with the threaded aperture 30 of the support base. The upright is also made of a noncorrosive material, in this instance, plastic; however, any suitable material such as brass or bronze may be used. The pedestal thus holds the upright in an attitude which is substan tially perpendicular to the plane of plate 24. Attached to the other end of the upright 16 is the pennant 22. The pennant 22 in this instance carries the numeral 8, but the pennant may carry any other designation which may be desired to provide a suitable marking indicia.

The cleat 18 is releasably secured to the pole-like upright 16. The cleat has a C-shaped body 36 which slideably receives the pole-like upright 16. A wing screw 38 is threadedly mounted in an aperture 39 in the body 36 to engage the upright 16 and thus releasably secure the cleat 16 to the upright. Formed integral with the body 36 is a neck 40 which has a head 42 formed integral therewith. The construction of the head and neck of the cleat is conventional and well known and the material of the cleat is brass, which is noncorrosive though any suitable material, such as, bronze, may be used.

The subject device is used in the following manner; the cleat 18 is adjusted to an appropriate height by loosening the wing screw 38 so that the cleat 18 may slide relative to the pole-like upright 16. When the cleat is at an appropriate height, the wing screw 38 is tightened into engagement with the upright and the cleat is thus releas ably secured to the upright. The mooring line 20 which has one end secured to the buoy is then placed into engagement with the cleat so that the mooring line is held above the level of the water and is readily available to be snagged with a boat hook or by hand.

In order to secure a boat, such as, a boat 44, the mooring line 20 is disengaged from the cleat, and the free end of the mooring line is secured to the cleat on boat 44 in a conventional manner. Before a boat leaves its mooring, the mooring line is disengaged from the boat, and the line is positioned onto the cleat. It may be readily appreciated that the pennant 22 which provides an identifying indicia for the buoy may be used by a skipper to find an appropriate buoy.

Although a specific embodiment of the herein disclosed mooring device has been described in detail and shown in the accompanying drawing, it is readily apparent that those skilled in the art may make various modifications and changes in the instant invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A mooring device for use wtih a buoy having a mooring line secured thereto comprising, in combination, a substantially fiat support base secured to an upper portion of the buoy, said support base having a pedestal formed integrally therewith, a pole-like upright secured to the pedestal of the support base and being substantially perpendicular to the support base, a cleat being releasably attached to the pole-like upright and being adapted to support the mooring line, and marking indicia secured to the upper portion of the pole-like upright to provide an identifying means for the buoy, whereby said mooring line being removably connected to the cleat provides easy accessibility to the mooring line.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,328,985 1/1920 Cook et al. 1l4218 1,536,701 5/1925 Buckingham et a1. 114230 1,921,500 8/1933 Blake 98 3,077,614 2/1963 Lloyd 98 2,672,118 3/1954 Martin 116174 TRYGVE M. BLIX, Primary Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R. 

